page_title: Wards of the City of London
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wards of the City of London / History
context_page_description: The City of London is divided into 25 wards. The City is the historic core of the much wider metropolis of Greater London, with an ancient and sui generis form of local government, which avoided the many local government reforms elsewhere in the country in the 19th and 20th centuries. Unlike other modern English local authorities, the City of London Corporation has two council bodies: the now largely ceremonial Court of Aldermen and the Court of Common Council.
  The wards are a survival of the medieval governmental system that allowed very small areas to exist as self-governing units within the wider city. They are both electoral/political sub-divisions and permanent ceremonial, geographic and administrative entities within the City. They had their boundaries changed in 2003, and to a lesser extent in 2013, though the number of wards and their names did not change.
caption: A 1720 map of Bishopsgate ward, clearly showing London Wall; the street and ward to the north is regarded as being "Without" while to the south is "Within".
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